Category: Media Review

At one point in the later part of its 13-episode run, Davos, fellow K’un-Lun citizen and longtime friend of Danny Rand drops a line that is so on the nose, I’m surprise that it made the final cut.

“You’re the worst Iron Fist ever!”

Damn, dude. Words hurt! But sadly, so does the truth, because depending on what you read/who you listen too, Iron Fist is not as good as it was hoped to be – for a wide range of reasons.

I say depending, because although the series dropped to some critical and fan lashing, highlighted by rotten tomatoes scores of 17 and 79% respectively, it actually fared very well when compared against other Netflixseries when analyzed with the network’s own metrics.

I’m going to ignore all the Who-Struck-John that dusted up when Loras Tyrell (aka Finn Jones) was cast to play Danny Rand – mostly by those who wanted an Asian in the role, even though Jones in the comics is Caucasian – because I think the series would have caught grief from people regardless of which way they went with their casting choice.

All of which would have gone away if it ended up that the casting decision was a good one. Unfortunately, although Jones seems to be a fine actor, he was woefully behind the curve on this fight choreography skills when Iron Fist started filming – a fact that is sadly very apparent in the final production – apparently because he had little time to train before filming began.

With dazzling martial arts scenes popping up regularly on Into The Badlands, some flashy action sequences in shows like Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, and hard hitting, gritty fight scenes from Iron Fist’s sister show Daredevil, not having top notch fight scenes from your star in a series based on the “Living Weapon” is borderline criminal. Especially when you factor in that co-stars like Colleen Wing and Lewis Tan are more than bringing it.

But let me push all that to the side and list three areas where I thought Iron Fist really missed the boat.

THE BIG BAD

I’m going to say it now, I’ve never been a fan of The Hand, which is TOTALLY hypocritical of me, because I’m usually all for anything that fills my TV or movie screen with katana wielding ninjas.

But to be honest, I just haven’t warmed up to them, sorry. I know, long time readers of the comics will point out that the Hand are pretty big players in the Marvel world and longtime adversaries of Daredevil. Given.

But to me, the Hand have always been the under card with other villains and anti-heroes carrying the more interesting parts of the story forward. In the first season of Daredevil they had the unenviable task of trying to out shine Edgar the Bug’s (AKA Vincent D’Onofrio) King Pin and for that show’s second season, the plot line of the Hand I felt weighed down the second half of the series mostly because it diverted focus away from Shane Walsh’s (AKA Jon Bernthal) Punisher.

The would be main bad guy for Iron Fist I guess would be the whole Meachum family, siblings Joy and Ward, and their father Harold who is dead, except that he’s not. Together Joy and Ward spend a lot of time not believing that the returning Danny Rand is indeed Danny Rand because they believe he’s dead, except that he’s not.

Problem – there isn’t a shred of menace in these three together. Not one iota of the quiet rage, or singular focused aggression that made The King Pin or The Punisher so compelling, respectively.

Harold meanwhile spends a lot of time hiding in his penthouse because people believe he’s dead, except he’s not, abusing is assistant and hoping the Hand doesn’t drop by for a visit. In the real world, only his assistant and Ward know that he’s not dead (except that he is, but he’s not) which assists Harold as he attempts to figure out if Danny Rand is dead or not. Got it? Groovy.

Problem – there isn’t a shred of menace in these three together. Not one iota of the quiet rage, or singular focused aggression that made The King Pin or The Punisher so compelling, respectively. Nope, they just kind of wade through the plot, adding obstacles when Danny needs them, and opening doors for the same reasons. But as far as lifting the show up to another level as other villains have in the past? Never happens.

Now, I’ll balance that with this – the inclusion of the Hand has brought some cool boss level fighters for our heroes to overcome. There was Nobu Yoshioka in both seasons of Daredevil, and Iron Fist gave us the very interesting (and sadly underutilized) Zhou Cheng (The Drunken Master) and the Bride of Nine Spiders.

And who doesn’t love Madame Gao? I want her on my fireplace mantle to act as my own personal version of Google Home. “Gao, What’s the weather going to be today?”

“Ok, so…partly cloudy, then?”

If Iron Fist showed me anything, it’s that if there isn’t a very complete and interesting big bad to help carry the story, then for me the story doesn’t work, and the Hand are unable to do it by themselves, and sadly, Iron Fist is woefully lacking in complete and interesting big bads.

NOT ENOUGH K’UN-LUN.

One of the glaring omissions in my mind is the almost painful lack of back story into what makes Danny Rand tick. He just fancy walks into the building that bares his family name after a 15 year absence and starts to bring confusion to everyone who now works there.

But why? Why did he train all his life to face and defeat the dragon, Shou-Lao the Undying, securing his role as the immortal Iron Fist, only to skip out and go walk about the first chance he got?

The show doesn’t investigate this part of Danny’s life very deeply, only showing an occasional glimpse of K’un-Lun, (where he apparently spent much of his time being whipped with a cane, because, plot!) and none of his show down with Shou-Lao.

Having that back story could have greatly fleshed out Danny’s motives, and maybe even have been used to explain why he doesn’t yet have the fighting skill level, or indeed the basic knowledge of other powers, one would associate with the Immortal Iron Fist.

Did Danny decide to face Shou-Lao even though his masters thought he wasn’t worthy or indeed, ready too? Did he beat the dragon using some Kobayashi Maru type cheat? Was his goal simply to be come the Iron Fist because he knew that would be the only way he could leave K’un-Lun, which was a long time plan of his?

So much backstory and motivations for Danny could have been filled in by focusing on this part of his story, and since it didn’t we don’t have it, and Danny just seems to do things because he does.

LONILINESS

No, I’m not talking about Danny’s alienation when he returns to New York or his love life (I’ll never feel sorry for a guy who winds up at the end of the day with Colleen Wing), I’m talking about the fact that Danny Rand is the only Defender to show up in Iron Fist.

From a production point, it takes some of the “he met, she met” that needs to happen out of The Defenders

I can understand why, the producers probably wanted the show to fully explore and flesh out the Danny Rand character, and probably felt that the inclusion of another Defender would somehow take away from that goal. My question back – did including Luke Cage diminish Jessica Jones in any way? No.It.Did.Not.

Adding another Defender would have helped jump start the formation of the titular group as well as allowed the show to have a path with which to move into The Defenders. From a production point, it takes some of the “he met, she met” that needs to happen out of The Defenders thus allowing that show to have more time to devote to story (consider The Defenders appears to only be 8 episodes), plus puts a very interesting aspect into Iron Fist allowing them to remove some of the slower moments of that show.

Who would not have wanted to see Madam Gao once again irritated by the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, or even a nick-in-time save by Jessica Jones. And don’t tell me fans wouldn’t have fist pumped or left their seats the first time they saw Luke and Danny, the team that in the comics becomes known as “Heroes for Hire”, standing next to each other ready to demolish a Handful (get it) of ninjas in a classic battle.

No…whoever made the choice to make Iron Fist only about Danny Rand…I feel they made the wrong one.

And that’s it. That’s the three bullet points I took away after watching Iron Fist. The show is OK at best, but sadly flawed, and really hurts when compared against the shows that have come before it.

Sometimes a concept is so brilliantly simplistic that you’re not sure why nobody ever ran with it before.

Take this simple premise – you and your friends are sitting on a couch watching bad movies and making fun of them as you do so. Sound like fun? You’ve probably done it.

Well Joel Hodgson ran with it when he introduced Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1988. Collectively, over 10 seasons and three networks, Hodgson and the MST3K team managed to make fun of almost 200 movies.

Fans of the cult show rejoiced when in 2015 Hodgson announced the return of the show and started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to fund (initially) the first three episodes. The campaign raised a total of almost 6 million dollars, and it was announced that the series would be developed for Netflix’s “drop all episodes at once” streaming format.

Much to his credit, Hodgson didn’t bog down the simple concept of his show with a lot of extraneous narrative, and thankfully, the new show keeps the same format with all of the most recognizable antics as before, allowing old fans to hop right back on as if they’d never left, and new fans to quickly catch on.

If you’re not familiar with the show, the premise is two paragraph simple (or if you like, one minute and a half introductory theme song simple – see below); two mad scientists ( now played by Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt) kidnap one poor guy (now played by Jonah Rey) and force him to watch horrible movies to see how long it takes to break his sanity.

“So are all these mountains hallow, or are we going to have to guess which one?” – Crow

In the original series our poor guy (initially portrayed by Hodgson himself) retaliates by using parts of the ship he’s trapped in (ironically the parts that he could have used to stop the movie) to build several robot friends who watch the movies as well, helping him keep his sanity by making fun of (riffing on) all the stupid things that happen during the movies.

And we’re off. That simple. The show never wastes time over analyzing the motivations of the Mads, or why Joel, who could build all these cool robots doesn’t try to do something more useful like figuring out a way to escape, or as the introductory theme song intones, how he eats and breaths.

Although the new series is much of the same the first episode does take a few minutes of exposition to bridge from the older series and give enough background to bring newer viewers quickly up to speed.

There’s a small introductory skit that features Wil Wheaton and Erin Gray, but much like Wheaton says about being Sheldon Cooper’s mortal enemy on Big Bang Theory, it doesn’t really take up much of your time.

The prologue sets up Jonah as the new host, including a run down of several upgrades he’s made to the Bots, including Gypsy’s voice and the fact that Tom Servo can now hover.

The theme song has gotten an upgrade thanks to the musical help of Har Mar Superstar and kicks in every episode when the cold opening in interrupted by a tube that comes down and sucks Jonah into the title sequence, to the point where one of the Bots even asks him during one episode, “why does she make you do that every time?” Robot Roll Call is shot in silhouette on a green screen allowing it to be presented over scenes from the episode’s movie, and the countdown hallway has been given a fantastic makeover.

While classic bits like the invention exchange, conversations with “the Mads” and guest appearances are all still here, the show seems to have given them less time, which never gives them a chance to get stale or repetitive – a good thing considering the show is now bingable. Is that a word? Yeah, that’s a word.

The classic Bots are back, with Hampton Yount doing a pretty solid Crow voice, Baron Vaughn giving a new inflection to Servo’s voice, and Rebecca Hanson adding a really nice touch taking Gypsy’s voice into a more mature, feminine tone.

Once inside the theater, where the horrible movies are played, it’s business as usual with a few cool upgrades. The classic silhouette in the corner technique is still used to depict Jonah and the Bots as they watch, but now the threesome seem to do more, including leaving the theater and coming back or switching seats. Servo will on occasion hover up to the screen to point out something, and in what I think is a really nice addition, Gypsy now drops in on the left side every now and then to help our team out with a quick comment of her own. Although I have no idea what she’s bringing in and out of the theater when she does.

But as the cliche goes, the real stars in the series are the movies. Joel Hodgson kept the screening list for the new series under very tight wraps and every fan I talked to had specific wishes for the types of movies that would be represented.

And I don’t think Hodgson disappointed. The series contains a nice mixture of the black and white horror movies that were the show’s bread and butter when it first began (Reptillicus, The Beast from Hallow Mountain), horribly bad space dramas (Starcrash), sword and sorcery (The Loves of Hercules, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom I/II), and even a movie about a magical Bigfoot and the boy he tries to help (Cry Wilderness).

I was especially happy to see Reptillicus and Beast on the list as I remember watching these movies in my youth on the old Doctor Shock horror movie TV shows (any old Philly area UHF TV watchers out there?). Those old black and white horror movies are what drew me to MST3K in the first place, as I’d seen so many in my youth and grew up loving them.

(Said about a blank foggy screen) “This is what every Star Wars movie looks like before the CGI is put in.” – Jonah

As does Hodgson, at the heart of the show is the fact that he’s is not making fun of these moves so much as having fun with them. So with that in mind he insisted with this new incarnation that the riffing not go over the dialog of the movies so that the audience would not only be able to enjoy the comedy, but also enjoy the movie for what it was intended to be. I was afraid this would slow down the comedic pace of the show, but in truth it really doesn’t affect it all and if I hadn’t been aware of it in advance I probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

And even though the show was shot for Netflix, the show still appeared to me to be blocked for commercial broadcast (a fact that I was able to verify while writing this review), which I found odd, but not overly distracting.

The new series of MST3K not only updates the old format enough to put a little bit of a new shine on the show, but also successfully recaptures the fun camp that made the show so great to begin with.

Jonah Rey is a solid choice as the new host, bringing a quiet “play along” reserve that typified previous hosts Hodgson and Mike Nelson, while Day and Oswalt appear to be having a lot of fun playing the Mads.

Old fans will be happy with the new 13 episode offering and new viewers will have no problem discovering why so many of us enjoyed the show initially.

MST3K season 11 is current available for streaming on Netflix along with a selection of shows from previous seasons, and remember – Turn Down Your Lights (Where Applicable).

When we last left Rick and rescue team 6, they had just been bushwhacked (or is that junkwacked) by a new group. Are they new friends? New enemies? Or simply the people you courteously nod to when you pass on the street while you’re out scavenging for the Saviors?

Let’s find out as once again with another non-beer related post (maybe I’ll start to mention the beer I’m drinking while I’m watching to tie it all together) where I run down some random remarks about this week’s episode. As always my comments from this week’s Facebook live chat that inspire these thoughts are in bold. Spoilers.

Morgan wants his stick

Oh man, some douche took Morgan’s non-killing stick. There are rules, douche. Don’t tug on Superman’s cape, etc, etc. And Morgan said “please”.

Seriously, this renders our most prolific non-killer inactive until he gets his non-killing stick back so that he can return to his non-killing ways.

And he will, douche. One night when you least expect it, Morgan will come and not kill everyone between him and you and then not kill you and take his non-killing stick back, because Morgan will not say please again. You’ll be able to feel the non-death in the air.

In the meantime I guess Morgan will just have to sit around and not kill people. What a waste of a non-killer.

NAME!!!

Richard is trying not to let his dick plan go to shit but Daryl’s having none of it. The man with the crossbow asked you a question, Richard. I don’t think he’d have to ask me twice.

And it’s a pretty serious dick plan. Get the Saviors to discover Carol so they can kill her and piss off the guy who thinks he’s king? Holy crap, what kind of ass drain thinks of a plan like that? The kind of ass drain that deserves to have it all go to shit when he’s forced to spill the beans to one of only a handful of guys remaining in the world who would kill him on the spot for even thinking about such a dick plan.

After Daryl gets the name and puts all the pieces together he gives Richard (who we should now just be referring to as Dick) a rundown of things that better NOT happen to Carol, like rug burns, irritable bowel syndrome, even getting struck by lightning – or someone now referred to as Dick is going to get it.

I would totally do that last one just to see the looks exchanged between Dick and Daryl, “Sorry Dick, I said no lightning. Look at the flowers while I get my crossbow.” The comedy element would be hysterical and watching the fans melt down would be more entertaining than this episode was (not that I didn’t enjoy this episode, I just would enjoy watching that more).

A tad unlikely you say? Remember, we’re talking about the woman who walked out into a one lane, one way street and managed to get hit by one of probably only 20 cars that were still running in Atlanta and probably one of only 5 white paneled station wagons still running in Georgia. If anyone can stumble into the way of lightning, it’s Carol.

We call it Thunderdome.

Yeah, we know there’s no dome here, but Thunderlandfill just didn’t have the right pop, you, know? Still, we have a woman leader with funny hair and combat sports for fun. No, no methane producing pigs or crashed 747s though. Hmmm, guess we’re not at all like Thunderdome.

Synchronized abduction is the new post-apocalyptic Olympic sport.

Did you see the Scavengers walk our gang into their garbage alley and then on command snap together quickly forming two almost perfect concentric circles around them! That’s some high level group capturing choreography right there, folks! It’s as if one of the surviving groups were made up entirely of the more goth inspired members of your local high school marching band. Stay tuned for the half-time show.

What should we do with this new character? “Give her a Vulcan haircut!” Brillant! And ears!! “No not the ears. Let’s not get carried away.”

Man, I don’t know who Pollyanna McIntosh’s (who I’ve only seen in a horror movie entitled Let Us Prey alongside Davos from GoT) hair artist is but they either had an old, banged, Vulcan wig from any number of old Star Trek shows/movies laying around, or a serious Moe Howard fetish.

I realize that when a character’s life has been reduced to fighting dead people and gathering supplies for others, they may not have the time or motivation to get that slamming haircut that says, “I’m confident, sexy, and the leader of a group of people who live in a junkyard”, but seriously, you could plane wood with those bangs.

Does that one girl have a fucking bicycle pump?

When a scuffle breaks out among the groups I could swear that one lady was leading the charge with an old-time bicycle pump. And I don’t think it’s the non-killing kind of bicycle pump either. That bicycle pump looks like it’s seen some action. My heart aches for a show down between the girl with the killing bicycle pump and Morgan with his non-killing stick. Which could happen soon, because he’s getting that back, trust!

Celebrity death match!!! Rick strikes first with the ice cube tray!

When Rick squares off against Winslow, who is the ZAE (Zombie Apocalypse Event) version of Chopper, the junkyard dog from Stand By Me, (if Chopper were a zombie encased in metal and covered with sharp spikes) it’s in an area that is totally surround by high walls of garbage. The only weapons Rick has are his wits and whatever the Fergusons threw out before the world ended.

It was a kill or be killed moment, so Rick grabbed the first thing that he could, which looked like a large plastic ice cube tray. It shattered pretty easily, so I don’t think it was, but it definitely wasn’t a good first pick from the wall of weapons. But it was a pretty funny moment and staggered this reality’s version of the Tin Man enough for Rick to set up his killer Dim Mak Death Palm, with less than stellar results…

Your Death Palm Gung Fu is no match for my headdress.

Here we go again folks. I can hear the “this is where Rick finally loses his hand” people now.

I love how this show sometimes dicks with the people who read the comics. Case in point, we all know what happened to Glenn in the TV show, which was the same thing that happened in the comics. And the show twisted that knife several times by having Glenn and a baseball bat intersect several times during the show.

Same can be said with Rick’s hand. Rick gets his hand cut off in the comics and the show has also teased about playing that card several times. This possible time arises when Rick decides to use his Dim Mak Death Palm against Winslow only to be foiled by Winslow’s Metallic Spikes of the Dead.

But eventually Rick gets the upper hand (really, it is upper because it’s stuck on Winslow’s forehead for a bit) and it’s just a matter of pulling a bunch of garbage down on top of the old boy and then dispatching him after some first class coaching from Michonne. Good game guys! Way to play defense!

Drive me home, baby. I’m drunk. Or bleeding out. I can’t tell.

Rick is kind of loopy after his cage match, which is understandable because the dude is losing blood from his hand at about a 0.6 on the Muta scale. Seriously, if you or I had this wound in the real world, we’d have three towels wrapped around it while yelling at the person next to us to drive faster.

But not Rick, he’s a man’s man and even though he’s dropping puddles on the floor like Ric Flair, he still takes the time to have an emotional man-to-man with his priest and go shopping for his girlfriend (more on that below).

The King’s Cobbler, still a better story than The Rock in The Road

Well, it’s taken a ZAE and the loss of her abusive husband, but Carol is final experiencing what it’s like to be one of the pretty girls. She just wants to be left alone, but all the guys keep coming to her house and asking her to the dance.

Here’s a tip for you guys, if you ever have to start a conversation with, “I know you said you just wanted to be left alone…”, then maybe you should reevaluate your decision making process.

But luckily, the man who thinks he’s king has come bearing his majesty’s peach cobbler, which is either simply all the king’s bakers know how to make or the official coin of the realm now. I don’t know which.

I saw that metal cat and I just had to have it! It’s so you! I know, right!

“Victory!! Well, not really. Uneasy understanding!! That’s more like it. So, we got grabbed by this group, I got forced to fight a walker encased in armor and spikes, forged a very, very shaky alliance once I proved my worth and just for the hell of it, I’m taking this metal cat for my girlfriend. Like, I’m not even going to ask. And fuck if it belongs to anyone in this marching band trained, American Pickers group, because I’ve lost half my blood and all I can think of right now is how much I just heart my girl. Whoa! Soooo much blood loss.”

What a missed op, Daryl. If you’d have told Carol the truth she’d have been all, “Really, hold my beer.”

Some people on my FB group disagree with me on this, saying that Carol is broken, needs to find herself, work through her issues, blah, blah. Look no doubt, but here’s the thing, unless the writers deviate from cliche character writing 101, you know it’s going to happen sometime, so my thought is let’s just get on with it.

Carol finding out who Negan killed may be the kick in that ass she needs, because you know, we don’t need mopey, contemplative Carol. No, we need the Carol who goes all John Wick on large groups of evil doers and can blow up a propane tank from 200ft away with a bottle rocket, which was about a 6.5 on the WVIS (white van impossibility scale) but that’s how bad ass Carol is. She could probably even turn Morgan’s non-killing stick into a killing stick. That’s some Baba Yaga level power right there!

“People keep asking if I’m back. And I haven’t really had an answer. But now, yeah, I’m thinkin’ I’m back!”

I ship Daryl and Shiva

Nothing makes me smile more than when a guy and a CGI tiger bond. It’s so heartwarming. Nothing fake about it what so ever. Well, except the tiger.

The Talking Dead were commenting on how funny it would have been to see Shiva pull Daryl through the bars and kill him, BUT NOT SO FAST BOYS! Save that one for later, because Daryl has to be alive to make my Carol getting struck by lightning scene work.

Tell you what, let’s woodshed in the writer’s room and get this all worked out. Lots to do. Plus we have to figure out how Morgan is going to get his non-killing stick back in the most dramatic and violent non-killing way. We may need to get some coffee in here. Looks to be a long night…

…which means I’m outta here! Was this one more shitty than last week’s post? Let me know in the comments and I guarantee it will have no baring on how shitty next week’s is.

The Walking Dead continues to be one of my favorite shows on TV and I look forward to it every week. That doesn’t mean that the show sometimes makes me scratch my head, or just confuse me outright.

I watch the show while at the same time participating in “Live Chat” on a WD Facebook page with like minded people. We watch the show while at the same time making inspiring comments about it, some are deep value adding comments on the technical issues of the show while some are just stupid. Think MST3K. But without the talent. Or the budget.

I wrote a buddy who I used to work with when the show went on mid-season break, but moved to another job not long after. He wanted to know what I thought, and after tossing together some musings on the show based on some of the chat comments I made I thought, why not rewrite it and post it.

I’m always wishing to expand the posts on this blog from just beer related stuff and so here we are. You wonderful people, are the benefactors of this whim. I won’t be posting it on my blog’s FB page as I think I should keep that all beer related, so only you fine people who follow through WordPress or get my blog through email get to see this. Yeah, you!! Happy Valentines day!

The comments in BOLD are what I wrote during live chat, the normal text underneath as context to the comment. OH – and spoilers.

“Do happy tears count?”

This was in response to someone who asked if anyone would cry if Father Gabriel died after raiding (loudly, I mean isn’t anyone on guard) the pantry and driving off in a car. I’ll admit there really wasn’t an out pouring of support from the group for the man, but a tear is a tear, right? But I was told the tears had to be in sadness. Sorry, no can do. I mean, for Jerry who is the new bitchin’ character on this show, yes. Father Gabriel, no.

As for Father Gabriel? He’s dead now because we’ve all seen enough horror movies to know that the person who sat up in the car as he drove away was probably some deranged killer and we all know what happens next.

I know what you did – 5 minutes ago in the pantry.

“Yeah, a boat, looks like the Minnow…just sit right back”

There’s now a picture of a shipwrecked boat in the opening credits montage – because why not? I guess Oceanside is going to be such a big part of this story this year, that they get their own nod in the credits. I mean, it doesn’t look like that boat from that other show that now doesn’t have a boat, but used have a boat – so I think we’re safe.

“googly eye…no s”

Someone in our group accused Coral of giving Enid googly eyes. I had to correct them. But damn that kid was working his eye patch on her. I think she digs the patch.

“Coral is your second gunman?? The one-eyed kid?”

Really? After Rick states that the group only has two guns we find out that Coral is holding the second one. WTF? The one-eyed kid who has a disturbing habit of siting his guns with the non one-eye?

Negan stated in the previous episode that the kid, “mowed down several of my men with a machine gun”, but I don’t think he should get gun privileges for that since that wasn’t his goal going into the whole situation! His objective was to kill Negan, who he missed in spectacular stormtrooper fashion.

Besides, we’ve already established that most of the women in the group are better shots than him even back when he could make googly eyes. No, give the gun to Sasha and let Coral put his patch to less dangerous uses, like flirting with Enid.

What could go wrong?

“Pot plants! Pot plants as far as the eye can see”

Come on. Guy thinks he’s king, has dreads (that’s racist) and has a CGI tiger which everyone in the kingdom acts as if it is real (come on guys, we know it’s the emperor’s new tiger). Guys run around in catcher’s chest protectors and think they look cool? And Jerry? Well Jerry is just too happy for a guy who is one mistake away from a Roy Horn type CGI tiger attach. You know they’re smoking something. Those tomato plants are hiding something.

“I’d like to see Ezekiel say, “what the fuck was that story about!!?!?””

The story about the dick king who put a stone in the middle of the road which basically crippled his people. The one who put a bag of gold under it because the person who decided to move the stone should be rewarded. That story. WTF? What was the point?

Oh, and not fair that the little girl in the story lost her family’s beer. That’s boss level dickdom right there! What kind of mother tells this story? But then again, Ezekiel uses Martin Luther King speeches as bedtime stories so I guess that’s just the way the world is in this show.

“OH, and hey Morgan, who did Negan kill? How about the two A list characters that aren’t in the room right now.”

Funniest question of the night was when Morgan asks who Negan killed. Who is not there that you’d care about, Morgan? Carol? No, you know where Carol is. Aaron’s husband? No, no one cares about him. In fact, most viewers were probably like me and totally forgot that Aaron was married because the show doesn’t even care to show much of the relationship because even they know it’s boring. The goat from your award-winning standalone episode? Ask the CGI tiger.

Oh, and I love Rosita throwing shade at Morgan, “think you were right, now?” after telling him who is dead. Ah, he was. He told you not to attack the Saviors. If you’d have listened to him Mother Dick and Pizza Boy would still be alive. But Rosita is bringing the Latino heat tonight (more on that in a moment) so I guess she’s not going to let the facts get in the way of a good burn.

“OK guys what do we want to do for this episode? “Group walking. Lots of group walking.””

Really, this episode puts the ‘Walking’ in The Walking Dead. Cue up the Proclaimer’s “500 miles” at the beginning of the credits and I’m sure it syncs up perfectly with the rest of the show. The group seems to spend 1/3 of the TV time walking in loose group formation. It’s like the scene in Deadpool at the end when they’re epic walking toward the bad guys to DMX. Except none of our group are chrome, has a Sinead O’Conner haircut, regenerates axed limbs or knows DMX. Gripping TV.

“Damn Rosita……”

I always thought fucking the same dead guy automatically made you friends, or at least pinky buddies. I mean, who else are you going to commiserate with at the funeral? Well not in Rosita’s world. The funny thing is just the episode before when the group all re-united, the sisters in blood gave each other a “we cool” nod and I thought Rosita nodded first. Oh well, just goes to show you Rosita don’t give a damn if you’ve fucked the same dead guy – which I’m hoping will become the new running gag for the show where all the women take turns pegging Rosita’s men – and then the men die.

“This is Negan on 94.7 FM on your radio dial bringing [you] all of the post zombie apocalypse hits”

The team gets a walkie-talkie (courtesy of Jesus because, plot!) to listen in on Negan’s men and we find out that Negan doesn’t really want to be a spaghetti cooking mean girl, husband to 100 women, or ruler of the world. No, all he wants is to be an FM radio disc jockey! Really, Negan’s over the airwaves eulogizing of Fat Joey was funny as shit, not to mention very important information for his men, because you know, now that fat Joey is dead, thin Joey has been promoted to just Joey. You wouldn’t want to make that mistake at the next spaghetti night.

“that was COOL AS FUCK!!”

As totally impractical and impossible as it was, that Slice Capade (credit to the fine folks at Talking Dead for the name) scene was dope as hell. Just when you think you’ve run out of ways to kill a herd of zombies in one glorious CGI blood bath, Scott Gimble and his gang says, “hold our beer” and we get a presentation of zombie purging that just makes you laugh out loud (as opposed to LOL which is an entirely different thing) plus the most impressive demonstration of cable related carnage since Ghost Ship.

Yeah, it was about an 8.5 on the white van impossibility scale, but it still was an awesome visual and a gratuitous reason to toss zombie guts all over the camera.

“He went to find Jesus…doesn’t know he’s one town over”

Where did Father Gabriel go? That question was asked many times throughout the night. I suggested he left to find Jesus. The thing is that in this world finding Jesus is easier than you’d think. He’s usually in the next town over distributing communication equipment. Oh, he goes by Paul now because this time around Jesus is way more down to earth.

“HE SMILED!!!!! HOLY CRAP THE GUY SMILED!!”

When they were in the car after the Slice Capade, Michonne asked Rick to smile but he didn’t. I commented that he couldn’t smile, and then in the last shot, he did. What did he see? Or was it who?

The show’s producers say it was because Rick realizes he’s found his army, but I think he was just happy with all the women because it gives him more dating options because you know Michonne has lived well past the “Rick Grimes love interest” shelf life that this show has established.

And there you have it. Just some random stupid thoughts about a show that just seems to ask for them. Not sure if this will become a weekly thing or not, but you never know. If you liked it, subscribe to find out. If you thought it was shit let me know in the comments. I won’t promise that it will make the next one less shitty, but I will promise that you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you made no impact on its quality what so ever.

If nothing else, I’ll probably be doing a review of Iron Fist when it drops in March, which won’t be the first time I’ve written about the Netflix Marvel universe.

As a point of disclosure I’m obligated to inform you that there was no way I wasn’t going to enjoy this book.

Oh sure, I was going on a little faith as I knew absolutely nothing about Tony Russo before I caught wind of his new book Delaware Beer: The Story of Brewing in the First State. A brief stroll through the interwebs informed me that indeed this was not Mr. Russo’s first foray into the area of local craft beer.

So it seemed on a glance that Mr. Russo would be a capable writer with the necessary level of knowledge of the subject to answer the question that his latest book’s title seems to beg.

What is Delaware beer?

One gets the feeling that in order to answer that question Tony Russo took a cue from Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson. While standing on top of a hill with a clear view of everything that is currently happening “beerwise” in the state of Delaware; Russo seems to have asked the same question Mr. Tyson often asked viewers – How did we get here?

And – much like the show Cosmos – Mr. Russo is going to have to take us on a trek back in time to begin to answer that question.

Mr. Russo starts off in the early days of Delaware. Much to his credit, the author doesn’t proceed into a long rehashing of this time period, simply pointing to John Medkeff Jr’s recently published Brewing in Delaware for a more in depth study.

However, he does use this opportunity to set up future chapters by explaining such things as the influence of German immigrants that drove lager to prominence in the marketplace in Delaware and indeed the US, the impacts of Prohibition on the brewers that called Delaware their home, and also the strong sense of culture – the “tavern” community – that arose around the simple pleasures of family and good beer among these same German immigrants (remember that last one; it’s important).

Once the groundwork is laid we’re brought forward in time for a look at three men Delaware beer enthusiasts should easily recognize: Sam Calagione, Al Stewart and Jim Lutz (who provides the forward for the book).

The author lays out enough history to be informative but not boring while explaining the framework of state regulations, still prevalent prohibition mindsets, and early equipment frustrations that Sam and Al had to wade through to get their respective brewpubs off the ground. And by dialing in other breweries such as Iron Hill, adds a discussion on how each company took a different approach in the attempt to establish themselves in a market place that was (and maybe to a point still is) trying to figure itself out.

At the heart of Delaware Beer are the multitude of stories that are woven within the framework of this history concerning the people behind these breweries and consequently the breweries that would begin to open over the coming decades including 3rd Wave, FoDo, Mispillion, Twin Lakes and most recently, Blue Earl Brewing. Stories which help flesh out the narrative and make the book more than just a dry history text.

Mr. Russo uses these stories to highlight the fact that although each brewery worked independently to find their own identity within their surrounding community (remember that from above?) the overall result was a commonality that solidly defines what he believes Delaware beer is. How? Well you’re going to have to read the book to find that out for yourselves, but trust me, in my opinion Mr. Russo has more than risen to the task.

At 106 pages, Delaware Beer isn’t a daunting read. The narrative of the book flows effortlessly and it reads quite well. It also contains a good number of black and white pictures throughout (along with a 16 page color photo insert) of places and faces that people familiar with the Delaware beer scene should easily recognize.

As stated above there was no way I wasn’t going to enjoy this book, and I’m glad to say that I was right – mostly because I had the pleasure or experiencing this beer Renaissance for myself. Tony Russo has written a worthy addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the journey beer brewers took in the state of Delaware to get the beer scene where it currently resides today. I’d consider it an excellent follow up read (if not a totally unintentional companion) to John Medkeff’s book mentioned above.

How did we get here? I think Mr. Russo did a fine job explaining our journey. But unlike Cosmos, not only didn’t we have to leave our galaxy to find the answers – we barely had to leave our state.

[Disclosure: I’d like to thank Emily Hommel and Katie Parry of Arcadia Publishing/History Press for sending me an advanced copy of Delaware Beer. Receiving this book free as a reviewer’s copy in no way influence my opinion of this book or its review.]

THE FINAL SIP: “Being child friendly has been an important aspect of running these modern-day beer gardens, but being dog friendly has been critical. People like bringing their dogs to the brewery, especially in places without a restaurant, dogs are very welcome. In preparation for publishing this book, we traveled to all the breweries and saw dogs at nearly every one.” – Tony Russo, Delaware Beer. (PHOTO CREDIT: Mispillion River Brewing Facebook page)

If you’re looking for a college dissertation-like accounting of the brewing history in the state of Delaware, then Brewing in Delaware the recent addition to Arcadia Publishing’s Images in America series written by Delaware beer historian John Medkeff Jr is not for you.

Think of the book less like a stuffy history lesson and more like a visual museum exhibit as you stroll past pages and pages of photographs collected from numerous historical sources and the author’s own private collection (many of which have never been published before) that are designed to take you through (what I’m sure will be surprising to some) Delaware’s rich history in commercial brewing starting from the state’s first colonies up to the present day.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty here for the history buffs as each photo comes with a very detailed caption that not only describes the subject of the photo, but explains how that subject fits into the overall narrative not only in the past, but sometimes in the present.

While the author covers many of the smaller establishments that operated during this time, the bulk of the book focuses on the histories of three of Delaware’s largest brewing concerns – Hartmann & Fehrenbach, Bavarian Brewery and Joseph Stoeckle Brewing Company from their rise to commercial success on the efforts of mostly German immigrants, to their fall at the hands of prohibition and national brand intrusion.

But while the book does contain a large number of photos covering the growth of these breweries as they moved from location to location, the author also does a very good job at revealing the faces behind these businesses, many of whom brought their love for beer from Europe and/or their experience in the beer industry from other cities in the US.

And of course, the book (sadly) finishes these stories with the all too familiar tale of breweries that struggled in the face of the 18th Amendment only to find more hurtles once it was repealed.

The timing for this book couldn’t be any better as Delaware has been enjoying a rebirth of commercial brewing over the past 20 years. In 2014 the Brewer’s Association ranked Delaware 19th on the list of states by breweries per capita with 11 – four more than it had in 2011. Add to that, breweries like Crooked Hammock, Midnight Oil, and Bellefonte Brewing which are waiting in the wings and it seems only fitting that the fourth and final section of the book takes a look at not only the early pioneers of modern day Delaware beer, but those who seem firmly positioned to guide it into the future.

Mr Medkeff avoids the obvious path by not spending too many pages on industry giant Dogfish Head, whose story has already be told in a thousand other places, but instead after a respectful few pages goes on to talk about others that were instrumental in reviving the craft of brewing in the state of Delaware and indeed it is great to see people like Jeff Johnson (Blue Hen Beer), Al Stewart (Stewart’s Brewing), Marty Haugh (Rockford Brewing), and David Dietz (Brandywine Brewing) get the acknowledgement that they so rightfully deserve.

Local readers will also enjoy revisiting old haunts such as The John Harvard location, Downtown Brewing and Rockford Brewing; as well new additions Mispillion River Brewing and Blue Earl Brewing, plus others.

But what if you’re not into all this…brewing? No problem. The book touches enough on topics like the original settlers and prohibition (a section that I found quite interesting) to satisfy those interested in general Delaware history as well as simply affording the reader a glimpse into Wilmington’s past.

Longtime residents will surely recognize some of the structures and cross streets mentioned, even though they’ve taken on a much different appearance today, as well as recognize names plucked directly from the history of Delaware. And indeed that’s part of the appeal of this book, the fact that even though it mostly centers on an industry that flourished over a hundred years ago, the people and places are still very much woven into the fabric of the surrounding area.

Think you’ve never eaten lunch or enjoyed happy hour in a building that once housed the hotel and saloon owned by one of the men behind the Hartmann & Fehrenbach Brewery? Check out pages 25 and 77. Have you walked through the gardens established by a man who lead The National Association Against Prohibition? Read page 79. Think you’ve never driven your car over the very lot that was once home to Diamond State Brewery? Page 99 may surprise you.

Brewing in Delaware is an amazing collection of photos and documents showing the historical linage of brewing in the State of Delaware, and Mr Medkeff has done an admiral job adding context and substance to those photos. Its visual format and easy reading (It’s about a three/four beer book) makes it approachable for anyone who wants to know more about the breweries and brewers of the nation’s First State, whether you’re familiar with Delaware or you’re not.

SUGGESTED READING: Anyone who is interested in the history of brewing in the pre-prohibition era.

MUST READ: Anyone interested in the history of Delaware and/or the history of brewing within the state of Delaware.

SUGGESTIONS: A great gift or stocking stuffer for that beer lover in your life. Or just buy it for yourself.

………………………………………………………………………………….

Brewing in Delaware, $21.99, Arcadia Publishing. Available at local retailers, online bookstores, or through Arcadia Publishing and The History Press at www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888) 313-2665, starting August 10th, 2015.

I’d like to thank Emily Hommel and Katie Parry of Arcadia Publishing for sending me an advanced copy of Brewing in Delaware.

THE FINAL SIP: John Medkeff Jr (R), along with Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione pose with the head of the 11-foot Gambrinus statue that for years adorned what would later become The Diamond State Brewery. The statue was inadvertently broken while in storage in 1978 and currently resides in possession of Mr Medkeff who hopes to restore it. (PHOTO CREDIT: Delaware Beer History Facebook page)

Netflix and Marvel unleashed the newest member of the Marvel Universe on the live action world this past weekend when the first series of Daredevil was made available for streaming. What does this have to do with beer? Nothing. But when I started this blog I had it in my mind that I was going to write about a little bit more than just beer, so let’s take a look (mild spoilers ahead).

The show is part of a new paradigm of entertainment in which all 13 episodes of the series were made available immediately, allowing subscribers to binge watch or at least catch the whole series over a weekend or week, which is how a lot of people I know are watching series now a days.

The series is the first in a new united sub-universe in the Marvel world. Following Daredevil, Netflix will be releasing four other series based on similar characters based in NYC; Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and a team up series bringing them all together called The Defenders. But before all that happens, we start with the hero dubbed, “The Man Without Fear”.

The series (comic book etc) relays the story of Matt Murdock (portrayed admirably by Boardwalk Empire actor Charlie Cox), a newly practiced lawyer in the Hell’s Kitchen section of NYC who became blind after an accident resulted in his eyes being exposed to toxic waste. And much to the credit of Daredevil, that’s about as long as the series takes to set up the character’s premise.

In a world where many comic book movies spend an inordinate amount of time telling the character’s origin story (cough, Spiderman, cough – more than once), Daredevil gets right into it. Oh sure, there are flashbacks throughout the series to flesh out Matt’s back-story, his absent mother, his down on his luck boxing father, and even an elderly blind mentor named Stick (Scott Glenn doing what Scott Glenn does best). But for the most part, Daredevil seems to understand that although those are all key elements to the character, that’s not the story it’s here to tell.

After a brief scene depicting the accident (in which a young Matt saves an elderly man) we meet the current Matt Murdock in a church confessional asking forgiveness for, well, what he’s about to do. And cue the action. How?

Although left blind, the accident heightened Matt’s other senses giving him abilities such as being able to recognize people by their smell, hear conversations from great distances and tell if people are lying by listening to their heartbeat (in the comics Daredevil discovers that Peter Park is Spiderman when he realizes that they both have the same heartbeat).

In the comic, all of these abilities come together to give our hero a perception of what is around him (almost like echolocation) that is better than those who have sight. This aspect was used heavily in the 2003 Ben Affleck movie, but here, the creators behind Daredevil don’t use fancy effects like a crutch.

While they do allude to Matt being able to “see” everything around him, they don’t over explore the ability, instead (on a couple of occasions) presenting the thing or person that Matt is concentrating on as being in focus while everything else around appears blurred. This lack of fancy fixings allows the show not to rely on them and in fact, not to shoe horn them into action scenes that don’t need them as Matt begins going out at night to fighting crime as the “Devil of Hells Kitchen”.

But of course it wouldn’t be much of a compelling story if our hero spent all of his time subduing jay walkers and purse snatchers, so eventually his actions, in the form of both representing (Matt) and rescuing (Daredevil) a young woman accused of murder (Trueblood baby vamp Deborah Ann Woll, who still has the ability to distract me from everything else that is going on in any scene she’s in) puts him in the path of a cartel of evil doers who want to rebuild Hells Kitchen in the wake of the destruction left behind from the movie The Avengers (If you’re one of the few people who haven’t helped The Avengers become a 1.5 billion dollar movie here’s the quick – evil alien influence = bull #1, The Avengers = bull #2, and NYC = china shop). Of course that rebuilding includes hero annoying activities such as high level bribery, drugs, murder and human trafficking.

One of these evil doers is Wilson Fisk. The bullied, obese son of a domineering father, Fisk has risen to a high rank in the NYC crime world, but is literally unknown to anyone else in the city. In the comics, Fisk was known as The Kingpin, a title that Daredevil doesn’t use, but does elude to throughout the series. As an adversary of both Spiderman, and Daredevil (and to a lesser extent Punisher) in the comics, Fisk is probably one of the most well know villains in the Marvel Comics world.

So if you’re going to bring the big guy to the screen, you need a great actor to pull it off (probably one of the few things I totally enjoyed about the a fore mentioned movie, Wilson Fisk was portrayed by the late Michael Clarke Duncan), and to this regard Daredevil delivers, casting Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) who brings a quiet reserve to Fisk, a man who can comfortably strangle a man in one scene, while coming off as almost awkwardly uncomfortable on a date with his would be love interest, Venessa (Ayelet Zurer – Man of Steel, Angels and Demons) in another.

The rest of the cast is more than up to the scripts, including Elden Henson (The Mighty Ducks) as Matt’s long time friend and law partner Franklin “Foggy” (one of the first nicknames I’ve coveted in a long time) Nelson; Vondie Curtis-Hall (Chicago Hope) as journalist Ben Urich; Rosario Dawson (Josie and the Pussycats, Sin City) as Claire Temple nurse and friend to Matt; and Toby Leonard Moore (Dollhouse, John Wick) who does a really good turn as Fisk’s right hand man James Wesley.

While Daredevil did do several stints in superhero teams in the comics (The Defenders, The New Avengers) he is mostly associated with Hell’s Kitchen, and the street crime within, and it’s that gritty, more grounded approach to the comic book hero that Daredevil pulls from.

Instead of epic, city destroying, CGI fights or standard action fair where the hero constantly knocks out bad guys with one punch or kick, most of the fight sequences are filmed close quarters, with the combatants trading punches and doing considerable damage to each other. In fact, Matt’s body tells that tale well as it’s obvious as the series goes on that Mister Cox had to spend more and more time in make-up applying more bruises, scars and sutures to his supposedly battle warn body.

It’s a fairly effective scene, and one that made me think of the single shot fight scene in Old Boy

One of the best examples comes in the second episode when Daredevil attempts to rescue a young boy from men who have kidnapped him. An establishing shot sets the boy in a room at the end of a hallway, men guarding it from two rooms on either side of the hallway. As Daredevil enters the opposite end of the hall he jumps into the first room and a fight breaks out but the camera never leaves the hallway. In fact, what follows is a three minute scene that’s shot and edited such that it looks like one long tracking shot, following the fight up and down the hallway, but never following it into any of rooms that it spills into. It’s a fairly effective scene, and one that made me think of the single shot fight scene in Old Boy (the Park Chan-wook original, not the 2013 US remake which I’ve never seen and refuse too).

That all being said, Daredevil is still a show based on a comic book, and as such it still falls victim to a few of the tropes that are common to the genre. In one episode Matt just happens to fall into the back alley dumpster of Claire ( who of course as a nurse can patch Matt up every time he needs it) the one person in NYC who doesn’t see the need to call the police when they find a bleeding man in a pile of garbage. Then there are the people who figure out who Matt is for no other reason than – PLOT! And of course officer Brett Mahoney, shown to be just about the only good cop in Hell’s Kitchen conveniently showing up every time the cop that shows up needs to be on the side of our hero.

All in all Daredevil is a well conceived and well produced show. The acting is more than up to the task of conveying the writing, which in turn seems more than capable of telling the story. The cinematography and art direction are top notch, which isn’t surprising considering the quality of previous entries into original programming from Netflix – House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. I will admit that I found the end of the series a little slower than the beginning, with the final Fisk/Daredevil showdown (complete with the climatic donning of the traditional red Daredevil costume by Matt) falling a little flat with me.

Also, the episode “Stick” in which Matt’s’ one time mentor returns to NYC to ask a favor from the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” revolves around a plot device that’s never really explained in the end, and never revisited in the rest of the season. Still most of this I can forgive given all that I believe Daredevil gets right.

One of which is the realistic use of consequences in the series. Beyond just Matt’s ever growing collection of scars, death is presented as well, death. In other comic medium, death has become little more than a plot device, a construct where people die, and then come back (think Agent Coulsen) but in Daredevil, death has a permanence about it (so far, but I believe I’m safe in saying it will stay that way), as seen when one character who has long, rich history in Marvel Comics meets his untimely end.

Daredevil is part of the world that brought you Marvel’s Cinematic Universe – Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain American; and soon will deliver Ant Man, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange. However, except for a couple of nods throughout the series Daredevil doesn’t dwell on this connection nor in my mind does it need to. Oh sure, there are plenty of references and Easter-eggs for the sharp eyed Marvel fans (such as Matt’s dad fighting Carl “Crusher” Creel who is better know as The Absorbing Man in the Marvel Universe who was recently portrayed on Agents of Shield by Penny’s ex-boyfriend Kurt from The Big Bang Theory) but as far as tie ins to the massive world of hammer slinging Gods, and huge, green rage monsters, Daredevil seems happy for the time being to exist largely outside of that world.

Its street level perspective and more grounded style of comic book story telling is different than what is being brought to the screen in the MCU or Agents of Shield (actually it’s more in line with DC’s Arrow) and I think that’s a good thing. After all, for the most part, that’s what Daredevil is all about.